Archive for April, 2011

I just came across this article from Parents magazine on throwing a candy themed birthday party! What a great idea. It’s putting 2 amazing things together…candy and a birthday. I think any kid would love a candy themed party.

The article shows great ideas, like making giant lolipops out of balloons, wrapping paper tubes and cellphane wrap. what an adorable way to line the pathway to the party. They also put down lots of colored paper on the floor to create a pathway like the one on the candy land game board. They also created easy giant candies that could go on walls for added decoration. They just took 2 colored plastic plates, added some clear wrap and twisted the ends to make it look like a wrapped hard candy. These just add another great dimention to a party room.

It would be so fun to have everyone play a real life size game of candy land.

My favorite is the party favors, which doubles as a project. They set up bowls of various flavors of jelly beans or m and m’s and had the kids fill up empty water bottles/juice bottles (great for recycling its “green” friendly too) with layers of candy. Instead of sand art, which is wwaaaay messier, they could make jelly bean art. And the best is, they get to take it home as the party favor. You kind of end up saving a little money buy doubling it as the project and party favor.

Ive been trying to potty train my 3 y/o daughter the last week or so and I was rewarding her with a piece of candy everytime she made in her potty. The timing actually worked out really well b/c i had tons of candy in the house from all our purim shaloch manos. It started out by me rewarding her with a few jelly beans, then some licorise, then some chocolate, etc. Now, every time she makes in her potty she says “what am i gonna get?” I hope I havent created a monster who thinks shes gonna get a treat every time she makes until shes like 20 y/o but for now its working and its getting rid of all my extra purim candy in time for Pesach. Im going through tons of the candy, mostly b/c I give my other daughter (almost 6y/o) a reward too and occasionally, I reward my self with candy too!!! Let face it, potty training aint easy!

I was at a boutique last night (I’m a vendor for “the tile gal“- aka myself) and the hostess had mentos out for refreshments. They weren’t the typical fruit flavored or minty fresh breath ones, they were cola flavored mentos! Not too over powering in flavor, but a nice hint of cola. I’m sure there many more flavors out there, but not all kosher.

I remember when I first had kosher mentos, it was only in Israel. It was a special run for kosher and even then, some ultra orthodox people wouldn’t even eat them. Thy was like over 10 years ago.

Now, living in a very heavily Jewish area, mentos are all over the kosher markets with special runs made kosher with the highest kosher certification. You can’t buy the kosher run in a secular supermarket. They have to have he kosher certification on it. They have the fruit flavor, strawberry, cola and maybe a few more flavors, will have to check the kosher market after passover bc everything is turned upside down now.

Mentos are such good/ addictive candies. Hard on the outside, chewy on the inside. I could eat a whole roll easily. I love that thy make mini packages with like 5 mentos, so it’s portion controlled!

I threw a party for a friend over the summer and tried making cake lolipops. I used a brownie mix and they came out very cute. After I made the mixture, i formed them into balls and froze them til they got hard. I then melted chocolate, dipped the lolipop stick into the chocolate and then stuck that into the brownie ball. I then dripped the ball into the chocolate and then into sprinkles. While most of them came out good, some of them kept falling apart when i was trying to dip them into the chocolate.

A few months ago, I came across a cookbook that showed me how to make the balls. After you make any cake you want, crumble it up into a bowl and add about 1 cup store bought frosting. Like make a chocolate cake and mix it with chocolate frosting or whatever your taste is. after you make this cake paste, roll them into balls and freeze. this helps them keep their shape. the frosting is like the glue. then you follow the same directions as above. dipping the stick into chocolate and then into the ball and then dipping the ball into chocolate and then any coating you wish.

I just had an idea i saw on this site. there is an image of a cake pop in the shape of an apple, with a pretzel stem and fondant leaf. How cute would it be to give these as rosh Hashana treats. you can either give a few wrapped with a bow to teachers or serve them at your meal. kids would love this. Not sure yet how to make red pareve chocolate. I know the candy melts at the craft store are great, but they are dairy.